Russian Roulette, Anyone?
by Objessions
Summary: Tag to Episode 3. Not because this episode needs fixing or anything. It's just too much fun to pass up. I'm planning a few chapters of add ons for fun. Honestly can we really pass up Mac handcuffed to the bed and not add on to that? If you can you have more moral fiber than I do. Anyhow, all for fun.
1. Chapter 1

Days in a snow cave had not done anything great to either of their dispositions, but Jack sort of felt like Mac had done a better job of not losing his crap out there. Mac was too happy to be safe and warm to be feeling particularly judgmental one way or the other.

Jack shivered, draped in blankets fresh from the warmer, sipping warm broth out of a coffee mug. In between sips, that the medic on the flight kept encouraging with raised eyebrows and occasional verbal reminders, Jack was throwing Mac semi-guilty glances and had been since they'd transferred from the rescue helicopter to the Phoenix jet in the airport near Novosibirsk.

Sitting across from him, in blessedly soft, comfortably loose sweats and basking in the almost volcanic-level warmth of the blankets, Mac could have been accused of power chugging decaf chai. He would have admitted to it, too, and been perfectly comfortable telling anyone who asked that he was a) pretty dedicated to avoiding the IV of warmed fluids that the medic had offered (or was that threatened him with – he couldn't decide), and b) he kind of just liked the stuff and he was hungry and thirsty and the crew was being stingy with the food absent a more complete medical evaluation. He just rolled his eyes at that and accepted more tea. He was perfectly fine, thank you very much. Jack on the other hand … Jack didn't look so hot.

"How you feeling now, Jack?" Mac asked at yet another semi-guilty glance from his partner.

"I still can't feel my backside," he whispered, glancing around, half embarrassed, and more than half worried about it.

"You're probably better off," Mac shrugged. "Frostbite's a bitch. You know when you start to thaw out, you're gonna wish it was still numb."

"You be quiet," Jack snapped. Then he took a deep breath and kind of heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry I hassled you about your dad's watch," Jack said haltingly.

"Jack," Mac smiled at his partner. "It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. I've been kind of touchy lately …"

"You mean crotchety and mean?" Mac smirked.

Jack looked like a kicked puppy at that and Mac almost felt bad. "I'm sorry, man. I know that stuff went sideways when Ri …"

"Jack, we already talked it out. I'm just giving you a hard time. We're good. You were scared. You get … What's your gramps say about you ..? You get 'real ornery' when you're scared." Mac grinned. "And he's so old it hardly sounds wrong when he says it."

Jack's expression relaxed a little. "I'm known to get a little ornery when I worry, that's true," Jack shifted his position, then grimaced. "Ow, ow, ow!" he practically yelped.

Mac's face was sympathetic. Frostbite really was a bitch. "Stuff starting to wake up?"

Jack's face scrunched up as he nodded, a little too vigorously. "Mmmhmm."

Mac winced in sympathy. "That sucks, man. Maybe you should let them start that IV." Jack shot him a glare. "I know how you feel about it, but you'd warm up faster and maybe they could give you something for the pain." Jack continued to give him a look of vague betrayal that almost made him laugh.

"I'm fine," Jack lied, face still pinched and voice taut.

"Liar," Mac accused with a grin. "I'll hold your hand if you want."

"Shut up," Jack glared, but he half grinned.

One of the crew came back and offered more warmed blankets. Mac took one with a "Ah, thanks, man" and a big smile. Jack took one without saying anything and if anything he looked even grumpier. "What's the matter now, Jack?"

"Nothin'," he grumbled.

" _Jack_ ," Mac prodded.

"I don't know why we should bother getting all warm and comfortable. We're gonna land and go to Phoenix and get ordered to Medical …"

"We already got ordered there," Mac interrupted.

Jack responded with another glare. "Which means the floor where they never turn on the damned heat, being handed those ridiculous gowns that might as well be made of spider webs, and being tormented by Nurse Frosty, the new gal who hates us, until we find a way to annoy them enough to kick us out."

Mac chuckled. That was actually a pretty fair assessment of what they were in for. "What is her name anyway? I think it's Lisa … Or Alyssa … Liza?" Mac frowned, genuinely trying to remember.

"Lucifer?" Jack shrugged and Mac laughed. "How the hell do I know?"

Mac shook his head and accepted another cup of tea from the passing medic who gave him an approving look which Mac took to mean his color must be better. "Just don't give everybody a hard time, and I bet we'll be out of there by dinner."

"I don't give anybody a hard time!" he protested defensively.

"He said, knowing it was a lie," Mac smirked.

"Like you're any better," Jack grumped. "Somebody usually has to drag you to Medical by the ears even if you're dying."

Mac grinned, "But once I'm there, I know when I'm beat. Don't be a pain in the ass over your pain in the ass, and maybe … for a change … the infirmary will just be a pit stop on the way to the promised four-day leave Matty mentioned."

Jack exchanged his empty cup for a full one with a nod. "A little leave does sound nice," he admitted. "We could take apart your watch a little more and check out that clue you think you found," he hedged as a peace offering for his behavior in the snow cave.

"Yeah," Mac nodded. "And we could hit the beach and let the sun remind us of why we live where we do instead of …"

"Anywhere else?"

"That. Definitely that."

Jack was starting to relax a little. Mac wasn't mad at him for being a jerk out there in Abominable Snow Monster country and the beach plan sounded pretty great. "Besides," Jack said, reassuring himself aloud. "It's just a little frostbite. Medical won't be a big deal. In and out. Fifteen minutes."

Mac raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything. That was on the delirious side of overly optimistic, but he didn't want to bust Jack's bubble at the moment.

Delusionally optimistic Jack would quit worrying and whining and relax a little. And not to be a selfish jerk or anything, but Mac really wanted to sleep under these warm blankets and forget what was behind them, and maybe even what was in front of them, too, even for a little while.


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N - There were a few things about this scene that bugged me, and several others who I've been chatting with. I've tried to address those things here. Also, I don't have the moral fiber to resist writing these guys undressed, lol. ~ J_

Jack's scenario for their arrival at Phoenix hadn't been too far off. Although, Mac pointed out that at least it seemed like they had turned the heat on in the main med bay out of some sense of trying to make them more comfortable. Jack had responded by grumbling darkly about it being an effort to lull them into a false sense of security. Mac would have laughed, but he had the completely irrational thought that it was probably true.

First, Jack had been right. The new nurse was on duty. And as it transpired, Mac had almost remembered her name correctly, but Jack had actually been closer; it was Lucy. When she came in first it was to fleece them of enough blood that Mac was pretty sure someone else must be bleeding out but no one wanted to actively ask for a donation, and he was tempted to make a reference to the girl in Dracula. Then he realized that was not necessarily a book everyone might have read, or if they had, they certainly wouldn't necessarily remember all the characters names, and even if she did, she probably wouldn't appreciate the reference. Or worse she would think he was flirting, which was so far from the case as to not even warrant risking.

Jack, who unfortunately had reverted to being downright cantankerous and a little mean spirited, said he thought maybe the Lucy was short for a certain fallen angel and that she made him think she'd at least done an internship or two in Hell. In addition to his steady stream of being as off-putting as Mac had ever known him to be he also managed to be just whiny and squirmy enough for her to pick up on the fact that Jack, though he hated to admit it, was probably about as afraid of needles as Mac was of heights.

She'd looked at Mac at that point and said in something resembling both sympathy and frustration, "Is he always like this?"

"Lately?" Mac asked. "Kinda, yeah."

Jack glared at him and then went back to hassling Lucy a little. "You think I'm grouchy with ya, wait until you get around to him. He's like a little kid whenever he's here."

Mac just shrugged and kept his mouth shut. He had kind of crappy veins and while Jack was overselling how much anything that might happen here would bother him, he wasn't a fan either. He didn't need medical staff to mark him as a problem. Especially not somebody new he'd never accidentally pissed off before.

It was true that his tolerance for being poked and prodded was thin in the most dire circumstances. And, Mac's own circumstances felt much less than dire today. Doc was Doc and pretty much made everything sound like they'd barely escaped the jaws of death, but Mac thought it was habit at this point. It was his way of encouraging them to actually take care of themselves and not minimize shit. Mac supposed that was fair.

However, he didn't appreciate being detained along with his partner, who'd actually sustained some diagnosable tissue damage. Doc made a few electronic notes on their charts and said the nurse would take care of things and get them out of the infirmary as soon as they could manage it. He didn't see any reason to keep them or transfer them to the nearby private hospital Phoenix used when things went beyond their capacity.

When the doctor wandered off to deal with a bullet graze from another team, Mac turned to Jack who was currently prone on an exam table under a warm blanket. "You doin' okay, man?"

Jack just harrumphed and rolled his eyes. "You?"

Mac just shrugged. Then he blinked rapidly as Lucy was standing in front of him again with a thermometer.

"Really?" he asked cocking an eyebrow. He wasn't trying to be difficult, but he was getting impatient.

She just gave him the look that Jack had used as justification for his new nicknames, which alternated between Nurse Frosty and Elsa. She wasn't impressed and Mac could tell she was getting a little impatient, too. He decided not to compound her troubles.

"Fine," Mac sighed and let her stick the thing in his ear again.

"Ninety-seven point four."

"That's better," he said, trying on an ingratiating smile.

She nodded. "Better enough to release you shortly." He outright grinned. "We need to get you a prophylactic dose of antibiotics and a tetanus booster. Then you can go."

Mac frowned. "All my vaccinations are up to date, which I'm sure you can verify if you check my file." He didn't add that he wouldn't be authorized for international field work if anything less than that were true. Because he was sure she already knew it.

"Standard protocol for anything over five years in your situation and the antibiotics are a nonnegotiable, too. Which I'm sure you already know, based on how well researched your responses are known to be when you come in."

She gave him a tight smile. MacGyver's disdain for protocol, as well as his dislike for her entire department were well known.

He thought about arguing, then just huffed, "Fine." When she turned away to go get what she needed, Mac slid off the exam table, entirely fed up with being half-naked for no good reason.

Lucy turned back, raising an eyebrow. "And you're going ..?"

He shrugged. "To get some clothes out of my locker while you get whatever instruments of torture you feel necessary to inflict upon me. Although, I'd like to put out there that I've spent the last three days in a snow cave with Jack, so I feel like maybe you should go easy on me."

She almost smiled. "No way. I've been warned about you. Once you're on the other side of that door, it will take an act of Congress to get you back here. Sit. I'll be gone two minutes, tops."

"I'm cold," he almost whined. Then he took a breath and tried again. "Even your thermometer backs me up. I just want to get dressed."

"Two minutes. Sit."

Mac backed up and sat down, but he was giving her what could only be described as a superior look. "Sixty-five percent of heat loss in the human body occurs through radiation. Making me sit here without actual clothes is damaging to my condition."

"You'll live for two minutes," Lucy said, feeling her features harden almost against her will. He really was as bad as the notes in his chart said he was.

"I just don't see how people who consider themselves scientists can justify making me, a man suffering from hypothermia, basically sit here in my underwear slowly losing body heat …" He trailed off.

"Like I said," she said coolly, "you'll live." And she turned to go.

Quite unable to help himself, and later he was going to blame the mild hypothermia, Mac called after her, "There are some really interesting papers on the human body as a system as it relates to the Laws of Thermodynamics."

She threw him an irritated glance over her shoulder. Was taking care of Dalton and MacGyver some kind of initiation? She'd already done her share after they got back from Turkey, damn it. "Are you being purposely condescending or is it just natural?" she asked with just a little irritation. "I'm still new. I need an excuse to find the really big needles in the stock room."

"Um …" he stammered.

"Or you could knock it off and be out of here in two minutes," she offered blandly.

"Yes, ma'am." He looked at the floor for a minute, then made the mistake of glancing at Jack who just started laughing. "What's so damned funny, Dalton?"

"You," Jack snorted. "You were already pale, but now …" he dissolved into laughter again.

Mac just glared at him. "You're the one who's been pissing her off for an hour." Three days in a snow cave and now a pissed off nurse. "I hope she turns you into a kabob, Jack."

Jack chuckled again. "I had to get my tetanus shot after we crashed that helicopter in Kazakhstan and I screwed up my hand. So, I'm good."

Mac glared at him, and folded his arms. Then when Lucy came back he started swinging his feet against the exam table like a kid. She actually gave him a sympathetic smile. "I did not find the big needles, just so you know." He gave her an almost embarrassed half smile. "You okay?" she asked with genuine concern.

"I'm … whatever. I'm fine."

"He ain't fine, don't let him fool ya," Jack offered entirely unhelpfully, still feeling a little resentful of their survival tea, soup, whatever the hell that was.

Mac threw him another glare and then made eye contact with Nurse Lucifer … Lucy … _Damn it, Jack_. "I'm really okay."

"Are you sure?" she asked, suddenly concerned by his pallor and demeanor; notes said uncooperative patient. What the new nurse saw was something else, altogether. "Are you having any pain, discomfort?"

Mac just gave a small smile. "Does how I feel about being here count?"

She grinned and shook her head. "Unfortunately, no." She quickly and efficiently gave him the two injections the doctor had ordered, amused that he closed his eyes. He clearly hadn't meant to give offense. He was really pretty pleasant and if his partner's behavior here was any indication, he'd probably put in a rough few days, even leaving off consideration of the physical effects.

She was going to tell him he could go get dressed, but his partner had been making quiet amused noises the whole time and looked much too happy about being the one not suffering. She tipped him a wink. "Just sit tight for a minute. You won't be disappointed."

Mac shrugged and glanced at Jack who suddenly looked much less like there was some humor in the situation. "Guess it's your turn, Jack," he said, and while it wasn't necessarily mean spirited, there was a note of payback there.

"I told you, bud," Jack grinned, shifting a little under his warming blanket, "I'm good."

Lucy gave him a very toothy grin that nearly gave Mac chills, and she wasn't even looking at him. "Oh, I'm sorry Agent Dalton, I have orders from Dr. Anderson here for you as well. Let's see …" She looked at her tablet like she didn't already know. "Two different antibiotics, a blood thinner due to the severity of your frostbite, and an anti-inflammatory."

Mac actively cracked up when Jack paled at least three shades. Mac felt like he had a fairly normal level of dislike for being stabbed with pointy objects, and Jack was always more than happy to tease him a little about it. Mac figured it was a defense mechanism though, because when it came to needles, Jack was an enormous wimp. It was actually pretty funny. Like the idea of an elephant being afraid of mice, which was a myth of course, but still an amusing one.

After the second shot, Mac almost felt bad for finding it funny. But Jack had been kind of a jerk; in the snow cave and once they got here. Okay, more than kind of. Then, he accidentally glanced at Jack's face and he might have been sort of smiling. He didn't mean to, but it was a little humorous. Jack was such a bad ass, and so damned fearless. Until he wasn't. And also, this whole place just made Mac vaguely uneasy. Maybe it didn't bring out his best. But Jack said something, and afterward, Mac couldn't even remember what, but he knew it pissed him off a little. Something about him having never grown up because no one had shown him how.

He knew Jack hadn't meant it to cut, but god damnit, it did. And he was about to respond, to just flat out say he'd appreciate family jokes being off limits at the moment, when in walked the entire rest of the team. While he was still half-freaking-naked. Well, shit.

Mac shifted uncomfortably on the exam table, now wishing desperately that he'd just faded and gotten back into some real clothes when he'd had the chance instead of hanging out the extra couple of minutes to pay Jack back a little for picking on him. That was childish bullshit that they both should have outgrown a long time ago.

To be fair, Jack should have outgrown it before Mac was born, but 'he started it' wasn't an adequate defense, to Mac's way of thinking. If he wouldn't accept if from kids he'd babysat in high school, why should he use it himself as an almost thirty-year-old adult.

Jack, understandably, got angrier and more defensive. Mac, who later would have to defend his response to Jack, got a bad case of nervous laughter. He did think briefly that at least most of the team had the decency to look and act like the situation was as awkward as it was.

Except Matty. Who seemed to be wielding a situation she had to know would be almost unbearable for either of them like a club. Even Cage, who didn't have a great grasp on the group dynamic yet, seemed to be more trying to break the tension than be mean when she asked what role in the family Jack played.

When Mac, Bozer, and Riley responded with 'Crazy Uncle' they were hoping to just make Jack laugh, since that was exactly what they'd told him he was being after a couple of eggnogs at their New Year's Eve get together, but instead it seemed to encourage Matty. In spite of himself, Mac found himself caught in another bought of nervous laughter. All he really wanted at the moment was a pair of pants. And for Matty not to direct this uncomfortable level of attention at him.

Mac saw Lucy stare daggers at Matty when she smacked Jack, which probably made him laugh more than the actual event. If anyone would dare give the Director of Operations a dressing down, that she probably richly deserved, it would probably be one of the nurses. Mac had learned a long time ago, nurses didn't give a good god damn what your rank was, they just wanted you to follow their rules in their territory, and you know, have the courtesy to not die on them if you could manage it.

But she was new enough that she clearly didn't dare. Not yet, anyway. She considered getting another blanket out of the warmer to give Jack as a drape. It's what she would normally have done, but he looked ready to punch the next person who got close. Instead, she just gave Jack the 'don't you dare move yet' look before she left the room to find the doctor since instead of going on leave per the original discharge orders, her patients were clearly about to be sent back out into the field.

Matty made a sharp gesture that Mac interpreted as 'come over to the view screen or face my wrath' and he reluctantly slid off the table, trying to be very subtle about holding the back of his gown closed and mostly managing to not be too obvious. At the first available opportunity he encouraged Jack to do the same, still teasing a little, because, well because, this was already awkward as hell.

And it's not like he was interested in mentioning that he'd shared a barracks with Jack, a shower room, countless motel and hotel rooms, and God knew how many off the grid field assignments. And for the sake of Jack's personal privacy, since his physical privacy was now a foregone conclusion, he wasn't interested in fueling any conversation about who had or had not seen Jack's ass. Matty alluded to something beyond a professional relationship repeatedly and it clearly made Jack more uncomfortable that the fact that the rest of the team now new where Jack had a Superman tattoo 0ver a bullet scar he was never ever going to talk about and that bugged Mac a little. Not that they might have had a relationship and worked together.

Hell, that would be very much the pot calling the kettle black after Nikki. But the fact that effectively, Matty outranked (for lack of a better term) Jack and was using references to a personal relationship to manipulate him made him uncomfortable. Mac wasn't one hundred percent sure, but he thought that might actually constitute harassment. Not that he would make a complain on his partner's behalf. Jack would kill him.

Once the assignment for going after Red Fist was laid out, Mac and Jack exchanged grins that said their recent squabbling was over. They were addicted to the Oceans movies. _Oceans 11_ was probably their favorite. If either of them was laid up after a mission, that was in the rotation at least as often as the _Die Hard_ series.

They both wordlessly headed off in the same direction. Matty's voice stopped them. "Where are you two going? You haven't been discharged by Medical."

Mac did a valiant job of concealing his eye roll, since Matty was the one who circumvented procedure to do a briefing down here anyway. He and Jack answered together. "Getting pants."


	3. Chapter 3

"Why does it have to be me?" he asked, reasonably glad he'd recovered enough from his mild hypothermia to not be so pale. He was pretty sure he might actually be blushing a little, and noticing that made his face feel even warmer.

Riley shrugged. "It was your idea, Genius."

"Yeah, but …" he started.

"Besides," Bozer interjected. "Riley needs to steal the key and do her computer mojo."

Mac's expression brightened. "Why don't you do it, Boze? It'll be good practice for your spy-level acting skills."

Bozer grinned and shook his head. "Not a chance, bro. I need to help her. Besides, you forget how long we been roommates and how thin our walls are. I know you and Nikki had some of tho …"

"Okay!" Mac interrupted loudly as Riley dissolved into giggles. "Fine."

He grumbled as he took off his socks and shoes and Riley headed into the bathroom with her rig and a change of clothes that said girlfriend dressing in a hurry. When she came back out Mac was carefully laying his clothes across one of the chairs in the corner so as not to have to iron them, looking only slightly less than completely comfortable standing in his blue boxer briefs, and thinking to himself that he was getting a little tired of the whole team seeing him without his clothes. On the upside, he was still doing better than Jack in that department this week.

He glanced at Riley and smiled, hoping a little teasing would disguise his mild discomfort. "I don't want to cross a line here, but jeez, Ri. We want Maintenance to be able to pick a lock, not stand in awe of the lady who lets them in."

She gave him a once over, designed to make him squirm a little and she wasn't disappointed. Then she winked. "Hopefully, whoever they send prefers the ladies, or you'll seriously regret whatever new routine you and the old man have added at the gym that's bulked up your pecs so much."

He grinned and shook his head as he started climbing under the sheets. "I deserved that, I guess. This is already awkward. I was just trying to be funny though and you just had to …"

She smirked down at him, dangling the cuffs from one finger. "Express my disappointment that you aren't really committing and we didn't get the full show we were expecting?"

Mac managed a laugh. "You've officially seen 50% more of this ops teams collective asses than anyone on it ever should have. And that's where the line is drawn."

Bozer laughed. "But apparently Matty's seen it!"

"Yeah," Riley agreed, eyes widening a little. "She's said stuff like that before. What is even up with that?"

Mac shook his head. "I have no idea. Jack never talks about their stuff. Ever."

Bozer shrugged. "Maybe we should get Cage to get it out of him."

Mac frowned. "Let's leave Cage out of that. They finally seem to be getting along." They both sort of frowned at him. "Trust me. It just makes my life easier if everyone isn't at each other's throats. Technically this is my team. You might be interested in who sees whose ass, but all I really care about is not getting mine chewed by Matty."

"Mac, I'm gonna die of curiosity," Bozer whined dramatically flopping down on the bed next to Mac.

"We can't have that," Mac smirked. "Some night we'll just get him really drunk and get him talking. Super Bowl might be good if Dallas makes it. New quarterback looks good. Let's play the long game here."

Riley looked at the clock. "Alright," she shoved Bozer with a knee and he scrambled off the bed. "Where were we?"

Mac sighed, adjusted the sheets to cover the fact that he was still wearing his underwear, and put his hands over his head, making an uncomfortable face as Riley clicked the cuffs in place. "Guess we should call Maintenance and get this over with," he said, looking up at his teammates.

Riley had a mischievous glint in her eye.

" _What?_ " he asked, raising his eyebrows and hardening his eyes as a warning against whatever she was thinking.

"This just makes me wonder if you might be ticklish?"

His eyes flicked between her and Bozer. "No." There was a dangerous edge in that single syllable.

"He is though," Bozer said. "I know he is. My big sister …"

"Don't even think about it." His glare was frosty now, but he refused to so much as shift under the sheets. "I mean it."

They both got closer. Mac sighed. "Bozer, I will tell Riley all of your secrets and when I'm done with that I will do unspeakable things to your waffle iron. You will never make 'forgive me' waffles for Jack Dalton again."

Bozer took three steps back but he said, "You love my waffles, too."

"I've decided to cut carbs," he deadpanned. He gave Riley a very pointed look. "You know who I'm gonna tell and what I'm gonna tell them. Also, I will train ferrets and release them in your apartment to steal all your extra computer components."

Riley grinned, but backed off the bed. "Fine. But you know you just pretty much confirmed being next level ticklish."

"I don't care what you think I admitted to, as long as you don't attempt to verify your hypothesis." He grinned. "Now call Maintenance to get me out of these things so you can steal his key card before I resort to using the paperclip I'm holding with my toes."

Riley shook her head, but picked up the bedside phone as Bozer disappeared into the bathroom, grumbling about threatening a man's sacred waffle iron.


	4. Chapter 4

It seemed like things were going great, until the plan started falling apart with the identification of the new security protocols and the woman in charge of them. As the rest of the team were talking about how the plan was falling apart, Mac was already three steps into figuring out how to pull it back together.

He didn't know what had made him lift Jack's phone; okay, he did. Jack was always bitching about Mac taking his stuff to save their asses and had been doing a fair amount of extra over-playing it now that he had somebody new to tell tales to. He'd just been going to pretend to need it, maybe to poke Jack a little, and to see what Cage did. She'd been playing him for reactions since they met and frankly he thought maybe it was time to show her that turnabout was fair play. Instead, the phone happened to be just what he needed to get this rapidly crashing train of a plan back on the rails. Or at least begin to.

Jack's reaction had been exactly what he'd been hoping for when he'd just picked his pocket as a prank. At the moment, however, it was a distraction. Mac did glance up and see Cage's reaction. Simple amusement, nothing more, and something that looked almost like affection for Jack. Well, that was new, that was good.

And Matty seemed to be treating them as a complete team, not as a project she was trying to decide which part of to toss this time out, so hey, if he could figure out the iris thing and they could get this done, this mission might be good for both the world, and them personally for a change.

When Bozer was the one to come up with the solution to the iris scanner, Mac couldn't suppress a smile. For a guy who'd said he never wanted to leave the lab again after the siege at Phoenix, he was slipping back into field work almost seamlessly. But he still had no idea how to get close to Kasakova. Although he was warming up to Cage as a team member, he couldn't help almost daring her to join the spirit of improvisation she'd been a little derisive of so far. "I'm sure you'll come up with something."

She gave a little smile at the clear challenge, but she didn't have a chance to respond, when Jack stepped in. Mac just smiled and shook his head. The rest of the team, including Matty, might think Jack was the goofball big brother type he usually presented himself as, but Mac knew better.

Not only had Mac seen Jack in action, in the field, on leave, in the bar down the street from his house, it seemed like half the missions they went on wound up with Jack running into some woman he'd met under cover who'd fallen head over heels in love with him. If there was such a thing as having game in the romance department, Jack had it.

When he tipped a confident wink at the rest of the team and Mac saw their collective reactions, he was satisfied that they'd maybe just gotten a peek at that, too. Now, he just hoped Jack could pull it off.


	5. Chapter 5

Everyone was at least a little impressed with the suave Jack that none of them were really expecting. Mac had seen him play smooth operator before, but the rest of the team was used to Crazy Uncle Jack. He sort of wished Cage was getting to see it.

Mac was more than half sure Cage was feeding Matty information and that Matty had it out for Jack, at least a little. That was ridiculous, of course, but lately he was feeling a little paranoid … watched, even. And it had to be the shift in the team dynamic because if someone was actually watching him, he'd know it. Wouldn't he? Of course he would, damn it, he grumbled to himself.

He couldn't help cracking a smile when Jack's voice came over the comms avowing his love-at-first-sight reaction to Kazakova. Then, despite Jack's very successful lifting of the code off the, in Mac's opinion slightly terrifying, woman's phone, Cage managed to get herself pinched. _See?_ he thought to himself, _this is why I don't make plans. Plans go to hell all the time. If you're just winging it, at least you know you're screwed_.

Her comm went dead, so either they found it and the team was next-level screwed, or she'd managed to ditch it somehow. Regardless, they clearly were not getting in the front door. A distressing wave of defeat rippled through Mac. They couldn't catch a break lately.

He ran a hand over his forehead. An aborted mission was better than one the boss scrubbed because they'd lost a teammate and had to mount a rescue. Or worse one she pulled them from because she decided another ops team was more capable. Not a single idea for what to do next came into his mind. Spending all of his off time researching, investigating where his father might be, and why he might have dropped off the map was starting to catch up with him.

He had to stop himself from taking Jack's head off when his partner simply brushed off the severity of the trouble they were now in with complete faith that Mac would just 'whip something up'. If he could think of anything, he'd already be doing it!

He forced himself to take a deep breath, but he didn't even register that he was chewing his lip. Jack and Bozer both did though and decided to be funny. Riley, still totally focused on the mission (and desperate to prove herself after South Korea and coming home from her first solo mission banged up and needing to be Bozer-sat for two days) cut them off with what felt like a miracle solution. Mac was moving before his brain had even caught up to itself. And the rest of the team followed.

0-0-0

When Mac turned and realized the suite was occupied, his stomach lurched. He should have known. No way was the penthouse in a place like this not in use. Rookie mistake. Before he could decide what to do about all the eyes on them at the moment, Jack stepped in smoothly and adopted the identity he knew Phoenix had already started to prepare from Matty's casual mention.

Disgraced accountants didn't get into penthouse poker games, but caterers to the bizarre tastes of the super wealthy sure could. He didn't even cast a glance at Mac when he said his partner was his manservant, but he could feel the glare Mac wanted, but was too much of a professional, to throw at him. Then he gave Mac an excuse to move around the room, which almost made up for the name and the story.

Of course, despite how well Jack was playing the part, and the fact that they really hadn't had a lot of good options, Mac knew Matty was going to be pissed. That made him nervous. Things had not really been going all that well just lately. There were too many skin-of-the-teeth successes, and the loss of the EMP definitely had been a black mark on the books. This had to be a success. Period.

Jack's steady stream of chatter was keeping the table distracted. Even the bartender seemed interested. Damned if the man wasn't a hell of an improviser in his own way. He wouldn't admit to it, but Mac suspected Jack had done theater. Probably to hit on some girl, but then it turned out he was good at it. Picturing teenaged Jack in some shitty high school production of Westside Story made Mac half smile.

Finding the door to the passageway turned out to be easier than he thought, too. Then Kazakova showed up and once again everything went off the rails. They were about to be made and there was no denying it. Never had he ever wanted to just drain a drink more than he did at that moment. But when Jack gave him his moment, he just bolted through the door.

When he got to the vault and realized the Red Fist was there ahead of them, he wanted to just bolt, go get Jack, and get the hell out of this hotel before anything else went wrong. Since that wasn't an option, he ducked behind some pipes and tried to figure out what to do next.

0-0-0

Jack was pretty sure his nose was broken. Not badly, but a little; the annoying kind of broken. It made irritating the hotel boss lady more satisfying. Less satisfying was when she confirmed that she knew Mac was with him with her little game with her tablet. However, he was at least a little pleased with the look of almost surprised respect that he got from Cage when he told her he had a plan. He knew she must have read his personnel file based on how much she knew about him, but she often acted like she didn't expect him to know what he was doing. He wondered what kind of stories Matty had been feeding the new team member. Nothing good, he assumed. Was she still that pissed off about Chechnya? Well, he wasn't going to apologize again. What he was going to do was get him and Cage out of hotel jail so he could help Mac. When he told her the plan she grinned like a kid who's just been handed a wad of cash and turned loose in a toy store.

While Jack and Cage were having what amounted to fun for them knocking the crap out of some security guards, Mac was having slightly less of a good time. Without intel from the network via Riley, he had no choice but to follow the elevator up the hard way. _Because, why not, right? Everything else that could go wrong had, why not have to dangle from a coat rack that was making distressing metal fatigue sounds for five hundred feet or so?_ And the cherry on top of that particular shit sundae was the elevator shaft was well-lit.

He made the mistake of looking down and sucked in his breath, clenching his teeth and closing his eyes for a few seconds. It was a relief to get something under his feet, but making the jump from maintenance staging to the hallway took about ten years off his life. He wondered briefly how the day was going to get any worse. Then he cursed under his breath. You never asked that question. Once you did, things were going to find a way.

He was finally feeling like his breathing and heartrate weren't at 'just completed a marathon' levels when he realized how he was going to have to get into the Red Fist's hotel room. _Yeah, things found a way alright_.

Normally he might have given Jack a hard time for the stream of chatter he was getting over the comms, but honestly, roughly five hundred fifty-two point two feet above the ground (who was counting? Oh, yeah he was, that's right) he appreciated the distraction.

It would have been nice if could have avoided looking down this time, but since he had to swing into the room through the window he'd just blown out that wasn't really an option. The upside, he supposed, was that he had plenty of adrenaline for tangling with the bad guys. Normally, he didn't consider the fighting to be the fun part of any mission, but whaling on those guys after that felt damned good. Things were finally starting to look up. Then the dumbass he wished he'd just knocked out armed the bomb. And it was a nuke.

 _Perfect._


	6. Chapter 6

Cage was not one to be impressed easily (or at all), but the almost nonchalant way Mac carried the suitcase nuke onto the elevator got her pretty close. The calm confidence Jack seemed to have in his partner was also something that interested her. But when Mac said plan, she'd already learned to take it with a grain of salt. Jack's slightly panicked expression when he realized that Mac didn't have a whole lot of confidence in what he was about to try, made her forget that she'd almost been impressed though.

As they rushed down to the sub-basement level, Mac didn't fail to notice that Jack was having a hard time keeping up, even with Cage who had on the sort of ridiculous high heels he and Jack always complained about when they saw them in movies. "No self-respecting cop wears shoes like that!" was not an uncommon phrase in either of their living rooms. That wasn't good. If he got into the vault he wanted them to be able to get as far away from the blast as fast as they could. Vault or no vault there was going to be some concussion … if this even worked.

Mac took a deep breath when he looked at the timer. _Okay, I'm working against a clock. This is what you're good at, MacGyver. No feelings about the bomb. No feelings about the bomb. Damn, that was a lot easier in training than under a hotel full of people._ Then he looked around. He could definitely make this work. And weirdly, this way nowhere near as scary as the rest of his day had been.

They were really down to the wire when he finally cracked the vault though, and the fact that Jack stopped to admire the cash made him want to strangle his partner for a second. He was not moving fast enough to have any kind of smell the roses moment.

Unfortunately, they didn't get very far when the bomb went off. The blast threw the three of them to the ground and peppered them with chucks of debris. But … after a disorienting couple of seconds, they processed that they were, in fact, still alive. Mac and Jack reacted the way they always did. Their own sort of victory dance.

Cage, still trying to clear her swimming head, wondered what it was about these two that blowing stuff up turned them into a couple of fifteen-year-old football players who'd just scored in the big game. The Jack scooped her up and spun her around and she had to admit, as close as she felt to losing everything she'd eaten for the past month, it did feel a little bit good to celebrate still being here.

None of them were particularly steady on their feet as they made their way up to the lobby. Jack kept telling himself it was more the emotional loss of all that cash than the day he'd put in, Cage was busy think she hoped their exfil team included a medic, and Mac was mentally calculating how many days off Matty would give them to recover; he had places to go and a little mandatory R&R would get him there.

Riley and Bozer looked at them like they were crazy when they were pleased with how things had shaken out. You had to have been there, Mac guessed, with a slightly dopey, possibly mildly concussed grin. Kazakova wasn't impressed either. And with better than half the team still trying to hear over the ringing in their ears they were "escorted" to the airport (chased felt more accurate but the guys with the guns said escort so it didn't much pay to argue).

Not unusually, their flight was just them and the pilot and co-pilot. Bozer and Riley wasted no time in crashing on one of the couches, earbuds firmly in place. Either Mac and Jack would chatter about the mission or they'd argue about something because that's how the post-game usually went, and neither of them were interested in being spectators after all that.

Mac changed out of his suit before takeoff, and, much more comfortable in jeans and flannel, wedged himself into the corner of one of the couches and closed his eyes immediately after the plane was in the air.

Cage spoke from her spot in the chair across from him, still dressed to the nines, but dusty and disheveled. "You shouldn't go to sleep. You almost definitely have a concussion."

Mac didn't open his eyes to answer. "I'm not sleeping, I'm resting."

Jack came back from changing himself, holding a tissue to his face. Washing off the dried blood got his nose bleeding again. Now Cage turned her attention to him. "Does it need to be set?"

"Nah, it's not that bad. She's right though, Mac, you shouldn't be sleeping."

This time he cracked an eye open. "And you shouldn't be bleeding. But here we are." Mac sat up long enough to pull a blanket out of one of the cupboards over his head and covered up with it, making it very clear that their advice was both unwelcome and going to be unheeded.

"Seriously, Mac, Cage is right." Mac sighed at the rising dad tone Jack was getting now that things had settled down.

"Jack, I'm fine. But I'm also tired. We're all taking a trip through Medical when we get off this plane. So, don't start the mother hen thing right now or I will make you pay. Like in the old days, man."

"You threatening me with the full Hollywood treatment, kid?"

"You better believe it." Mac smirked, but didn't open his eyes again.

Jack was quiet for a few minutes. Then, "You want me to wake you up every little while … Just in case?"

"Jack," he warned.

"I'm just askin' because you know that's what they're gonna tell us all when we land anyway …"

Mac sat up and got out his phone.

"What're you doin', Mac?"

"You were warned."

Cage had to jump in. "Mac, you're not seriously going to retaliate against Jack for expressing a little concern for a teammate, are you?"

Mac looked up from the text he was sending, but didn't stop typing. "Don't get yourself on the list, Cage."

"C'mon now, Mac." Jack looked worried.

Mac slipped his phone back in his pocket, grinning in a way that made even Cage want to squirm a little. "Full Hollywood protocols initiated. Now let me take a nap or I swear you'll with think we are back in Bagram, Dalton."

"Shutting up, Woody. Damn."

Mac gave Jack a friendlier grin and promptly curled up under his blanket.

"What's that all about?" Cage asked, looking from one partner to the other.

"Shhhh," Jack said. "Mac wants quiet so he can sleep. I'm already gonna suffer. Let's not make it worse."

Cage rolled her eyes and finally decided to go change.

Mac was already out cold. Jack wondered briefly when the last time Mac slept was. Then he started noticing the aches and pains of this mission and sighed. He really hoped Matty gave them a couple of days off. He was beat. But he wasn't going to go to sleep. You didn't actually have to wake somebody with a concussion up to know if they were okay every couple of hours. He'd just be really careful.

0-0-0

By the time they'd gotten home, Mac felt slightly guilty about what he'd set in motion in response to Jack's mother-henning instincts. He didn't feel bad enough to back out. You made a threat, you kept it. He wasn't going to lose his hard-won reputation of the guy you didn't piss off if you shared a barracks (or in this case a flight home) with him. So, he arranged a little poker night to ease the sting. He knew Jack wanted to play Cage and he kind of wanted to watch that anyway.

He wished that he had Jack's gift for gab tonight. He'd meant to convey to Cage that while she was welcome, she didn't quite fit into the family yet, was still something of a puzzle. Instead, he got the impression that she maybe thought he was flirting. He wasn't sure how to fix that without sounding like a jerk. Hell, he wanted to tell her that if he was she probably wouldn't have gotten that impression.

On the job, Mac could be as smooth as silk with women, but when he was just being himself, Jack and Bozer constantly insisted he had no game. Given his track record, he sometimes wondered if they weren't right. Besides, even if he was interested, Mac didn't "fish in the company pond" anymore either. Getting burned by Nikki (okay almost getting killed) and then brushed off after she was the one who had seemed to want to rekindle things was all the lesson Mac needed in how not to date for future happiness.

When Jack got there, he found he did actually feel bad. They were just baby pictures, but the reminder of the mission brief was clearly still a sore spot. But after he'd chased Bozer around for a while and the photo album got put away in favor of the poker game, Jack didn't seem terribly upset. On their way to the table, Mac did slap him on the shoulder and offer a, "Sorry, man, but it had to be done."

"I forgot how mean you are when you get pranky, kid."

"Well, now you've got a reminder," Mac grinned, and they sat down to play.

Several hours flew by, and Mac was unsurprised that Matty was the big winner of the night, with him coming in at a close second. Matty had an excellent poker face, and Mac was really good at calculating the odds of people having particular hands.

Jack and Cage had a fairly even take and seemed to be irritated with the fact that their subtle attempts to apply their own interrogation strategies hadn't gotten them over on each other or anyone else, but for the first time, Mac thought it was a friendly sort of competitive feeling.

Bozer and Riley were both terrible at cards. Bozer was awful because he wore his cards basically all over his face and Riley just hadn't ever played much. Bozer seemed unlikely to improve since Mac didn't think Bozer could ever hide what he was really thinking, but Riley seemed to be picking it up pretty quickly. He had a feeling that if they made a regular thing of this, he'd have a run for his money in a month or two.

As usual, Jack was the last one to leave. He helped Mac and Bozer clean up and he and Bozer traded good-natured barbs, with Boze throwing down every slang word for butt he'd ever heard into their conversation and Jack responding with amusingly elaborate threats of retaliation. Finally, Boze excused himself for the night. Since he hadn't gotten almost blown up he didn't have any mandatory time off to look forward to.

Jack picked up the photo album off the table and gave Mac a dirty look. Mac chuckled in response. "I warned you, Big Guy."

Jack chuckled and shook his head. "It was a good one, I'll give ya that."

Mac raised an eyebrow. "Done playing nursemaid for now?"

"I think you cured me from that forever."

Mac snorted laughter. "Right …"

"Okay, I was maybe gonna ask if you actually plan to do what this little enforced vacation is all about … but only because I want to know how bored I should plan on bein'." Jack made the exaggerated innocent face that always seemed to crack Mac up.

Mac shook his head, laughing as expected. "I'm actually beat." Mac shrugged. "I was honestly thinking of sleeping vampire levels of late tomorrow and just kind of hanging out in my bathrobe reading for a day or two. Maybe playing X-Box if I feel really ambitious."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

Mac nodded. "Yeah, um, just been a rough … decade." He laughed lightly, but to Jack it sounded just a little forced.

"You hurt worse than you said?" Jack's eyes narrowed now.

"No! Jesus, Jack, that didn't last long." He shook his head again. "I'm fine. I just … you're right. I never use these breaks like we're supposed to. And honestly, I feel like a guy who almost got blown up. And I know you do because I can see how you're still walking. Go home. Crash. Ice. Play Madden."

Jack schooled his expression to be just sort of open and interested, with no suspicion in it. "You want some company tomorrow since Boze has to work?"

Mac shook his head. "Thanks, but … I'm planning on a lot of random naps. So, like I was saying, Gimpy …"

"I am not limping." Jack was almost indignant.

"You are now that you're tired, Jack." Mac looked at him with real concern. "Broken nose, concussion, and a whole lotta bruises you aren't complaining about but that are slowing you down. I hate to keep pointing it out, but you're the one who likes birthdays so I can't feel too bad about pointing out that you've had like fifty of them now, and …"

"You are officially uninvited to my next one. Calling me old! Ya brat."

"I'm just saying Jack, you always bug me to take care of myself … Take a couple of days and maybe do the same. Okay?"

"Alright. I like it when you make this kind of sense. I'm gonna call ya and bug ya though if I get bored."

"Fine, but I'll make you come over and play Madden against me and I'll kick the Cowboys all over the gridiron like I always do."

"With which team?"

"Which one is it that pisses you off the most … the Giants, right?"

Jack punched Mac on the arm mostly playfully. "Like I said, you're a brat."

"Guilty," Mac smirked.

After a little more teasing back and forth, Mac said he really needed to say goodnight. He was exhausted. Jack headed out and climbed into his car. Four days off was a long time for Mac to spend in his own ginormous brain. He puffed out a long breath, thinking of how Mac had kept looking at his watch, checking his phone. The kid was up to something. And he wasn't sharing.

Jack knew he'd better keep an eye on the kid. His judgement was not at all clear when it came to this stuff with his dad. He was neglecting himself in subtle ways, like not sleeping and obviously not planning on resting during their mandatory time off, and Jack knew it.

If Mac wasn't going to take care of himself, then Jack would have to do it. That was his job. Jack smiled to himself, acknowledging, in his own head at least, that it had stopped being a job back when there was a uniform involved in their working relationship. Then he chuckled as he pulled out of the parking area, thinking, "It's not just a job, it's an adventure."


End file.
